Friday, March 9, 2012

Minneapolis - Sunday, March 4, 2012

Phew! Now that I'm home from all the craziness that is my mother's house, I can finally sit and make a proper post about the little (see: amazing!) vacation, my husband and I went on to Minneapolis. Most everyone we told we were going on vacation over spring break to Minneapolis looked almost appalled. Why on Earth would you go from one very cold state to another which is known for being even colder?

Well, let me tell you. We're really hoping to move there one day. So we wanted to check it out. And let me be the first to tell you that if you ever go to Minneapolis, be ready to eat your way across the city. It's insane how many amazing grills, diners, restaurants (with awesome themes), bakeries, and ice cream shops there are in such a small area! We ate every meal out and still didn't have a chance to eat at all the places we kept having recommended to us. It was sad to know there were so many places we didn't get to go. However, we made the most of our time there, and I figured I'd share the details/pictures in a couple posts. So here is Sunday, our first day there.

We ended up getting to the airport super early, so we sat at the gate a while before boarding, Josh with his Zune, and me with my crocheting.
We were given seats across the aisle from each other on the plane, so the ride to Minneapolis wasn't great (since I couldn't lean over and give my sweetie cute little "I'm terrified we're going to die!" kisses on the plane, but we made it through).
Upon arriving in Minneapolis, it was off to the restrooms, baggage claim, and to locate the light rail, which was definitely a new experience. While waiting for the train, Josh allowed me to take one of the maybe three pictures of both of us.

He's not huge on posing and that puts a damper on my wanting to document everything, but we made it through regardless.

After the fifteen-ish minute train ride, we had to wait for a bus. Don't worry I took pictures there too, incase you forgot what we looked like.
 Then, after a bus ride, getting a smidge lost downtown, and finally asking for directions, we got to our hotel.
I'm not going to lie. Our hotel was too nice. We didn't really fit in (the few other guests we saw were wearing nothing but suits, seriously. I felt suited down quite a bit in our jeans and hoodies. Hah.)
Either way, I loved the room. It was so simple, but classy.



I loved having that cute little Keurig ..machine(?) in our room, even though we were super bad at making coffee. I'm a cream snob - powder cream kind of makes me want to throw up and I'm also all about the sugar. My coffee has only two packs of sugar? No. NO. I NEED MORE.
So, we attempted to make it every time they re-stocked our little coffee station, but alas, we couldn't manage a decent cup of coffee with what we were given.
After tossing our things all over the room (we didn't realize we had booked a room with two beds, so that second bed ended up being a dumpsite for our suitcase, clothes, and everything else. I bet housekeeping loved that), we decided to head out to dinner, with our terrible cups of coffee to do nothing but keep our hands warm.


A restaurant called Eli's Food and Cocktails was one of multiple recommended to us, so we tried it out.


Their food was delicious. One of my goals was to try new unpredictable flavor combinations (I'm not huge on taking risks with my food - I want to know I'm about to enjoy what I pay for), so I was safe with the nachos, and with my choice of dinner: BLT. But for dessert, the husband and I risked it and each got a slice of pistachio cheesecake with raspberry wine sauce. And while I used to really hate pistachios as a kid, I am now a huge fan. HUGE.

After dinner, we decided to go to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Because it states online that the garden is open until midnight, we thought it'd be a great idea to go in the evening so there would be less people walking around the garden so we could have a romantic little stroll.
Unbeknownst to us, we were in for quite an adventure. First, we had to navigate the streets of Minneapolis at night, shortcut through a very large and empty park (which was a tad scary), cross a wooden bridge over eight lanes of highway which was pretty much the worst part of our whole trip (Josh gets anxious about steep staircases and I'm terrifed of bridges over roads, especially highways!), and then, were severely disappointed when we realized the reason why we didn't see a single soul walking around the sculpture garden: it's very poorly lit. Given the "until midnight" hours, we thought there'd be lights everywhere, but nope. Only one sculpture had lights shining toward it, and that still wasn't enough for a decent picture.
However, I snapped one for memories' sake.
I guess this picture makes it look like it wasn't all that dark out, but it was pitch. black. And extremely spooky because there were bats chitchatting in the trees nearby, plotting our demise. We opted out of the long romantic stroll around the garden that we had planned and instead crossed over the bridge of death into Loring Park, and walked back to the hotel to watch The Amazing Race on television.

It sounds like a dull close to our first day in Minneapolis, but we still had lots of great things planned and had done enough walking for one day. (See: I'm from Michigan, and in Michigan you don't walk, you drive. Everywhere.)

I'll be back soon to tell you all about our second day in Minneapolis, pinky promise!

4 comments:

  1. EEEEp! So awesome, your hotel room rocked! The food looked super yummy too. What a great time, you both look so happy to have some time together. Hearts, Janna Lynn

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    1. Right?! Everything was so fantasticcccc. I would seriously live in a hotel if I could. I just like traveling for the hotel-ness and food!

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  2. Oh my goodness, your hair is so cute lately!

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    1. That statement implies that my hair isn't always so cute.

      However, I'll read it more as a compliment that it looks even MORE fantastic lately. It's growing out so nicely :D

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